S's first (For house member's only guitar concert)

Clinton Sir asked S the week before to practice his guitar well. S was expected to be ready for a mini-concert for his family members. He was to play "Hotel California", and sing it as well.

Well, as most working weeks go, this one went busy as well. And my dear son needs me more than anything in his life. No, no not because he is a Mamma's boy, far from it. He is very much his Papa's son. But he needs me to remind him to brush his teeth, take his bath, put away his books, practice his guitar, revise schoolwork with me..you get the idea...

So, if I don't tell him to do something, it won't get done. Sounds familiar? I bet many women have this challenge with some of their family members. I have this challenge with two of my favourite people in the world, both happen to be men. Coincidence? Yeah, lets leave it at that! ;-)

So anyway, I didn't remind him much, he ended up not practicing much, except on the day of the recital, and well, what can I say! He still did a pretty super job, considering how less he practiced.

I went from thinking.. "Should I pull him out of Guitar classes, since he never really wants to practice".. to .... "Wow! He plays pretty well! If he's this good without practice, imagine what he MAY be able to get to with practice."

I need to add his video to this.

The Cheese Touch

S came in for a bit, changed his clothes, and ran out to play cricket again. He had a somewhat upset look on his face, but I didn't think much or probe much.
Much later, when he was done with play, he came in with a grumpy expression, declaring as most kids do, that he was not friends with so and so for ever. And the story came out..
"We were playing cricket.. and ball flew into a bag near garbage or something. When we ran to pick up the ball, we could see a cockroach sitting on it. S.H. kicked the ball and the cockroach fell off. He then picked up the ball. I was like Yeew, how can you touch the ball? S.H. then ran behind me chasing me, trying to touch me, and he did! Now I had the "Cockroach Touch" on my Tee! "

I started smiling almost immediately, not because I was amused by S's reaction, rather because I was remembering the Cheese Touch story in Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There is this moldy bit of cheese in the basketball court of the school that Jeff Henley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid goes to. A kid touches it by mistake, and then everyone in school avoids him like the curse. Until he touches a kid, and then the other kid gets the "Cheese Touch". Then on to the next one.. and so it goes. S has only recently read the book, so I could imagine him making an instant connection when this thing happened. Hence the grin on my face, and I can tell you, S was not amused at all.

Sometimes parents smile because they find something the kid says or does cute in some way. The kid (atleast my kids) always interpret this as though the other person (in this case, the parent), is making fun of him/her. With M, when she sings a song in her baby voice, we end up smiling broadly. Often she throws a tantrum right after, thinking that we are making fun of her. We have learnt now to keep a straight face, encourage her with her presentation without going overboard. Sigh!

Curiosity!!

M is the epitome of curiosity these days.

"Why is my name M?"

"Why do humans have eyes in the front of their faces, while animals have eyes on the sides of theirs?"

"Did the doctor have to cut a big rectangle in your tummy to take me out?"

.. and on it goes.

Reminds me of Pinnochio, when Gepetto says you must sleep, he asks "Why?". Why is the question Pinnochio asks a lot as he tries to discover the world around him.

We all are curious little kids, and slowly the cycle of knowing a few things, and knowing a few things more rather well, makes us immune to what we do not know. Many of us retain some level of curiosity, but the specialization or focus on some areas, while helping us separate the wheat from the chaff , also reduces our curiosity towards our world quite a bit.

So take a moment to learn from your little ones.. and be curious about something new. Read a little, learn a little, and it will help you stay keen. Find ways to keep the curiosity alive in kids, they grow up too fast and become less curious too. Case to point, S used to ask a lot of questions when he was about 5-6. Now its gone down a lot, and he is only 9. I am sure the ability to question something, rather than take it for granted is there somewhere hidden below, but I see more understanding of the world around him, and less curiosity about how it all pulls together.

P.S:  Nice little article on Curiosity: Curiosity: The Fuel of Development

Diary of two Cutie Kids.. A Bit of This, a Bit of That, and more....

I am brand new to blogging. An absolute novice if you ask me. Between work and kids, its often the most precious moments of our life that get lost. I don't remember the first time S took his baby steps. I remember vaguely it was around 10.5 months. I don't remember when he said his first words. Forgotten. Lost in the memories of a brain which is coping with information overload. If you look at most of us urbanites today, especially those of us who are in the IT space, we have developed good short term memory, at the expense of our long term memory. I suppose I am not qualified to comment on this, but maybe, just maybe.. there is a connection.

Now M here, she is at an interesting stage in life. She is about to turn 5, is very curious, is asking lots of cute questions, and generally making us smile with all the tumble of words coming out of her little mouth. This time around, I set about thinking if I should document everything remotely cute that she says. I would love to, of course. But I am Lazy with a big L. Between going in to work, minding the house and kids, I usually end up feeling that I have reached my quota in a day. Come 11:00 p.m. and you can find me snoring, having fallen asleep, while ostensibly working on the laptop.

Hopefully, no more though. Human memory, or in this particular case, my memory is far too short-lived. Better late,than never, but hopefully I will capture the few highlights of our little life here, which are special for us as a family. If it makes a good read, even more better. But at the end of every day, writing a wee bit will give me a better chance at remembering a nice little episode I would like to remember 10 years from now. When the birds have flown, and the nest is empty, one shall reminisce about the good old days... I suppose. Maybe the kids will themselves get a kick from reading about their little antics once they are grown up.